Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O'Connell at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, after a 20-17 win over the Washington Commanders in Week 9 of the 2022 regular season.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the general manager of the purple team, selected wide receiver Jordan Addison in his second draft in charge. Addison will be an instant impact player from Week 1 and help Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins facilitate a dynamic passing attack.
Addison is the 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner as the best receiver in the nation. In the second and third rounds of the draft, Adofo-Mensah had only one draft pick, the 87th overall.
The second move of Adofo-Mensah’s second draft is not a selection but a trade. The 49ers, his former employer, and the GM facilitated a trade. He sent pick number 87 to Califonia and received picks 102, 164, and 222.
Minnesota still has a few holes to fill, and the more player the team selects, the better the chance that one of them is actually good. They entered the draft with only five selections, now they have seven, the usual number.
The Vikings have so few picks because they have already spent some of them. T.J. Hockenson cost the Vikings their second-rounder, Akayleb Evans was drafted after a trade for the fourth-rounder, Ross Blacklock cost a sixth-rounder, and Jalen Reagor this year’s seventh-rounder.
According to the Fitzgerald-Spielberger trade chart, the Vikings almost double the value of their draft pick. They gave up 737 points and the 49ers sent 1,334 points in return. The Vikings received a third-rounder, a fifth-rounder, and a seventh-rounder for one third-rounder, a wonderful return.
Last year, the Vikings selected linebacker Brian Asamoah in the third round, the best in recent history was certainly Danielle Hunter in 2015.
Expect the Vikings to bring in another cornerback to a depleted room, a defensive lineman, and a linebacker. Even a quarterback could be on the menu later in the draft.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson, QB of UCLA, is a great target if the Vikings and head coach Kevin O’Connell want a young passer to work with.
In Adofo-Mensah’s first draft, he traded six times, four times back, and twice up. It is very likely that he will facilitate some more trades in the next 24 hours.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and Classic rock is his music genre of choice. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt